Posts Tagged ‘fitness’

Over a month ago, I told you all about a little journey that I call #YogaAndYoncé. This journey has changed my life in such a short time, it truly is amazing. I am proud to call this transformation mine, and I hope that you can use this inspiration and motivation to push through to being the best version of yourself that you can be. I’m going to share a little bit of this fitness movement’s background, and then I’m going to share my results with you.

Living a successful, happy, healthy life means that there will be some sacrifices. I mean, it looks like successful people have it made, right? The truth is, no, these people work their butts off to reach and continue that journey. When I started on this journey, I immediately thought about Béyonce. This amazing woman shows us all what a happy, successful, and balanced life looks like. She’s got a family, and she’s known around the world for her untouchable talent. She gives back to the world so much and seems like a genuinely happy person. She’s a role model to so many people, myself included. She’s Wonderwoman, or so I’m convinced.

I wanted to start a wellness program that would inspire women to nourish themselves without sacrificing the glamour. Is it always glamorous? Absolutely not. Seeking a natural, holistic way to be fit, I chose yoga. This is an exercise that brings you closer to yourself by encouraging moments of clarity. You can see that yoga is not just about the physical exercise; but something that would truly feeds the whole self – physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Outside of yoga, I also have hired a personal trainer, slowly but surely becoming a regular at the gym and soon will start up with dance classes again. Strength, cardio, and clarity…OH MY!

The whole point of #YogaAndYoncé is to exemplify that you CAN have it all; be the boss, run the show, be healthy, be happy, and have a rockin’ life. Life doesn’t always go according to plan, so having a strong foundation of confidence and self-awareness can pull us through anything. We’re tough. We’re bosses – of our lives and of our careers.

Now for my results….

With the #YogaAndYoncé movement, I lost 27 pounds in the very first month and a half. I feel so much stronger – mentally and physically. #YogaandYoncé has brought me into closer view of my overall wellness. The struggle has been VERY real but I am still proud of how far i’ve come. I know that to take care of those around me, I must take care of myself.

If you are looking for a way to naturally nourish your overall being without sacrificing glamour, start your own movement! Or hell, join the #YogaAndYoncé movement today. Now. Right now!! As always…

It’s time for another life celebration lesson with your favorite professor, Lady Sprinkles. We all know it can be really easy and really great to have a random cheat day on your diet. We think that it will be ever so easy to get back our regular scheduled programming the following day. I know that most of the time, I would be a-okay snuggling with a pint of ice cream while watching old “Breaking Bad”episodes. It’s easy and enjoyable and in that moment, we think we are happy, right? Until tomorrow.

For some of us, that junk food day could bring on tummy issues or skin freak outs but the deeper issue is you’ve decided to put a break on your life. I do honestly believe that the way we do one thing, is the way we do everything. I can not focus or get anything done if everything around me is messy. The mess is a reflection of what is happening inside of me. It drives me mad. A lot of folks believe that if they weigh less they would be able to live more. Getting healthy can be considered the first step to getting the life you desire. By saying “I will start my diet again tomorrow” is the same as saying “I will get my shit together tomorrow”. Do you see how this can become a toxic cycle?

So what happens when tomorrow comes? Usually, I continue to say “F**k it!” because it’s the easier option. We continue to feel stuck and drowning in the impending doom. Last I checked, this isn’t part of living the life you’ve dreamed of. If you’re putting off eating well until tomorrow, you’re probably putting off finding a new job, signing up for that cooking class you wanted to take, sending emails you really need to get out, planning your future, etc. Most of us believe that it will just feel easier tomorrow, next week or next year. We tell ourselves that, “Tomorrow we will have more time, more money, and we will be supermodels.” Obviously tomorrow, life will magically be easier and making changes will fit more conveniently into your schedule. I hate to say it, but we are only bamboozling ourselves.

Stop the self bamboozle-ment. Life is never going to be easier – make the changes you want to make TODAY. The hardest part about living what you dream is starting. Why keep yourself in the state of starting when you could be living. I want my motor to run on magic and glitter, but I have to face reality that the only thing to get me going is putting in the time and the energy. Whether it takes 5 minutes or 3 hours a day, it is about committing yourself to yourself. Life will start to suddenly seem really easy.

Are you ready to make a self commitment that you will stick with? What can you do to end the cycle of “on again” and “off again”? Well, one of the major first steps is giving up guilt. Don’t shame yourself because you wanted to have ice cream after dinner, instead enjoy the progress you’ve made overall. When you dedicate 80% of your efforts to your goal, it’s better than shortly giving 100% and giving up altogether. Fight the good fight and you will see positive life results.

The journey of finding your balance requires a lot of work but it should be exciting and make you happy. I do not personally believe of depriving yourself of anything. Your happiness is what is most important, forever and always. No number on the scale should determine your bliss.

When we stop giving ourselves rules and change our mindset, we make magic. No one likes rules and we tend to want to break them. I am making a self commitment to try to think of a few ways to make my life healthier in general, without being unhappy…mind, body, and soul. Make your purpose and goals realistic and stop disappointing yourself. We are all humans here (I think), and where we are perfect, is being imperfect. Our imperfections are beautiful and make our lives worth living.

So here is my personal invitation to the biggest and best party of the year. I invite you to be inspired to take your own path to your inner happiness. I would like to introduce #ProjectPartySalad! For 100 days, I will commit myself to finding something every day to enhance the health of my mind, body and soul. This journey is obviously a life change and will go beyond 100 days, but I want to invite you to follow my first days, experience my struggles and feel inspired.

It’s party time, guys! Who is ready for some adventure? Are you as pumped as I am?

With a new year comes many new features and tons of new content. I’ve been having a rough time actually sticking to a schedule and this WILL get better. Per usual, there are some exciting, somewhat geeky, and very sparkly things in the works.

For those folks that know me well, you know I love offbeat self help gurus and learning to celebrate life in unique ways. When starting my venture as a lifestyle blogger, I had no idea where it was going to take me. The more I blog, craft, and celebrate life the more things unfold for the better. It’s an exciting and sometimes scary journey but it’s all about the journey, isn’t it?

With life celebration in mind (and I do mean LIFE celebration, flaws and all), I decided to include a new feature to this wonderful little piece of the internet called “LoveU :Get Schooled on Self Celebration”. This feature is like a mini lesson on how to get to your perfect celebration of you! It’s about making your life about health, love, and partying without feeling guilty.

These lessons will come in the form of fun product reviews, my own personal struggles and what I do to overcome them, and how to celebrate yourself on the daily. We don’t have to save the fun for special occasions, we should learn how to bring the party into our daily lives. Loving yourself daily means loving your career, having positive and healthy relationships, eating what you love and not feeling guilty, and anything else under the sun that brings you to your true internal happiness.

The River Valley Slim Down Challenge is our first topic on the LoveU syllabus. This will actually be a topic within the LoveU feature for weeks to come. I have been asked to document my journey in a 12 week health and fitness program. The challenge actually began last week on January 11th.

Donna Scott is the owner of IFoundFitness located in Deep River, CT. She recently announced her 7th annual River Valley Slimdown and the participants poured in. We all compete to lose the most weight over a 12 week period and we are also raising funds for charity. What better way to lose weight than for your health and also helping the community? It’s a win/win.

There have been over six challenges at IFoundFitness and Donna and her team has helped over 120 participants lose over 860 pounds! That’s a whole lotta boxes of butter! The challenge has raised over $1200 for different organizations and the current challenge will donate 20% of the challenge jackpot to a charity which will be decided by the participants.

The jackpot is based on the brave souls that decide to take the weight loss challenge by the horns. Each participant has to put in $65 (entry fee) into the challenge jackpot which includes a weekly weigh-in. If a participant gains weight or doesn’t lose anything, it results in a penalty fee. All of the penalties plus the original registration fee goes towards the final jackpot. This jackpot is then divided between the contest winner and the selected charity.

So I just completed the first week of this challenge. Overall, the participants have collectively lost 87 pounds in week one and gained only 4.2. How insanely awesome are those results?! I am sure you’re wondering specifically what yours truly has lost. Well completely shocked and excited, I am proud to announce that I have lost 10 pounds within the first week of the challenge. I will be sharing how I kick started my wellness journey in a product review ofRaw Generation juices, but for the most part it was a lot of eating more, dancing, laughing and loving.

I’m extremely jazzed and proud of the progress I have made in the first week of this challenge and couldn’t have imagined doing so well. One thing I’ve found extremely helpful in week number one is sharing my new lifestyle with the public. Everyone I came in contact with was aware that I am taking part in a weight loss challenge. This has been majorly important because I have increased my accountability.

Making your journey public forces you to not want to fail and helps you realize that the most important person within this process is and will always be you. You will hear a ton of mixed bag of tricks and tips to lose weight. While I love people sharing their wellness tips, no two people are the same and you might find something that works for you that others are completely against. It’s best to take in everything that everyone is saying and know that they are trying to support you in their own way.

Problem solve like you’re a mad scientist. If nothing you’re doing is working and you’re not feeling completely fantastic then try something new. We are all unique creatures and there is no simple fix that will work on all of us. We aren’t robots or clones. Celebrate your health in your own personal way, and you will be surprised in the magic you unlock within your life.

The lesson of this post should be, don’t be afraid to celebrate with others. Let them in on your struggles and your victories. Throw some confetti in the air just because you’re choosing caring for yourself over self loathing. This will help weed out the bad apples within your circle of friends as well. Make it a priority to make every day full of celebration and love. Get rid of fear and share your struggles. It’s key in daily self love and celebration. Forever and always…

Hello my little party monsters! Lately I have been super focused on getting in shape and getting healthy. When life’s a party, it’s easy to live off of cupcakes and cocktails. I am happy that two years ago I discovered Work It Dance and Fitness.

I used to dance as a small creature and it was my passion. There wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t thinking about perfecting all of the dance moves from the latest Janet Jackson video or putting on mini concerts for my family. After a couple of hours of reminiscing and a quick google search, I found Work It Dance and Fitness and was shocked at how close the studio is to where I live. I instantly signed up for a Burlesque dance class and I have been addicted since.

Since i’ve been focusing on proper health and wellness for a party girl, I have been asking friends what are they doing to improve their health. The other day a friend said to me “Well, if you’re going to focus on getting in shape and healthy you will have to do something more physical”. I sort of laughed it off but I mean, it’s so nuts how people think dance couldn’t possibly be a great workout. Not only is it amazing for you, but it’s fun! It beats getting on the elliptical for an hour, staring at gray gym walls, and listening to music on your smart phone.

Dancing is one kick ass way to improve more than just your fitness and it’s something you can do even if you can’t make it to a dance class. Fold your laundry and shake it to your favorite jam if you have to. Dance gives you an amazing combination of physical exercise, creativity, mental concentration, and if you do it with others you are improving your social interaction. When you improve on these areas of your life there is less stressing, less nerd rage, you have an increase in your energy and your strength and muscle tone are on point. Sound pretty good right?

Dance is a great activity to add to your daily life for health, wellness and to make everyday a party. Here are some of my reasons as to how dance can improve your quality of life:

❤ Dance makes you feel like a rockstar. Dancing is one of the best ways to build your confidence. When you dance it unleashes a huge pocket of confidence you didn’t even know you had. You can learn a lot about yourself from your movements and having other people watch you move. The more you learn about yourself, the more you’re well on your way to moving like Jagger.

❤ You grinnin’ fool, you! Most of the time, if you see someone dancing you will see that they have a giant sized smile on their face. Dance is meant to make you happy and in turn makes others happy to watch you. It’s the circle of a dancin’ fool’s life. When you feed your body the movement in which it craves it reacts by giving you happy feelings. When you’re happy you have a ton of energy and in turn can do more with your time, like become a ninja. Who doesn’t want to feel happier or be a fucking ninja?!

❤ The brain can be a scary place. As people, we sometimes get caught up in our own thoughts and don’t just do things because we want to. Don’t get me wrong, thinking and being within your thoughts can be awesome sometimes but you don’t want this to be the constant state of your mind. Do something frivolous on the dance floor and free your mind.

❤ Communication is key. Have you ever been at a party and just stood there wondering how to open up a line of communication with others? Are you the one praying they someone suggests taking out a board game or starts a conversation with you? Why not just bust a move? Communicate by dancing, it does not require you to say one word. It’s a great way to become the life of the party and it might help also bring others out of their shells.

❤ Sexy, sexy, sexy! There was a study on how dancing can make you sexy so it has to be true, right?!

❤ It’s just a little hobby. Learning any dance form or just loving to dance in general is probably one of the coolest hobbies you can add to your list of hobbies. All of your non-dancing friends will assume you are the coolest person ever just because you’re a dance machine.

❤ Geek the fuck out!It always comes back to being a geek. If you decide to pick a dance form to try out, you will get more comfortable within that style, and you will geek out about your new passion. Most geeky types always are looking for something new and exciting to geek out about. Why not add dance to the list? It will add some spice to your geek resume of Star Wars and Domo-Kun. I bet most people would never think you are a geeky lord of dance. It’s a nice little surprise to spice up your geek-dom!

When you’re a child dancer and you grow up and out of dance, you always think there is no way you can possibly get back into your practice. I, like many adults was completely wrong. Since finding Work It Dance and Fitness, I personally can say that it has improved my quality of life. From the warm friendly faces, motivational pep talks, and doing something amazing for my body I can say it’s one of my favorite parts of my life. Work It Dance and Fitness has always been a physical challenge but the teachers always manage to kept it fun, fresh, exciting, and new. My love for all that is dance has come back into my life full swing and I couldn’t be happier that it did. I have built quite a wonderful new bunch of friends that I now consider family.

If you are in an area that has a dance studio, I would recommend signing up for a class or two. You will be surprised how quickly dance will become addictive. If you are looking to improve several parts of your life and have fun, dance is probably the best way to go about it.

So it’s time to shake your money maker! Put on your dancing shoes and shimmy your way to a healthier and happier you! Do you think you are going to venture out into the world of dance and take a class or two? Maybe you will be the first one at the next party you’re at to hit the dance floor? Or do you want to start small and be a private dancer for a party of one in your bedroom? I always say go hard or go home!